The Sap Moon is full as I write this, and the Maple Sap is flowing. We’ve got 40 taps out right now, and the First Boil happened March 24 when our sons came and spent the day in the sugar shack while we were out and about. They turned 55 gallons of sap into 1.5 gallons of syrup – it was a good day.
Second Boil happened March 29 – hubby boiled 50 gallons of sap down to 5 gallons for making Wine – an even better day!
Third boil happened April 1 – hubby went out to the sap buckets and poured out the tiny bit of sap that was trapped under the ice. It was super concentrated, VERY sweet. We had about a quart, and boiled it to 259 degrees, then stirred it into a cup and a half of Maple Sugar! First time we’ve ever made it, and it was very fun and satisfying.
I’m enjoying drinking some Maple sap straight from the tree – it’s really sweet! I’m using it to make tea, and to flavor my coffee, too.
Did you know that you can tap trees other than Sugar Maples, and make sryup with them, too? Walnut, birch, hickory, sycamore, ash, basswood and butternut all have sap that contains about one percent sugar. And other types of maples can be tapped too, like box elders, silver and black maple. Sugar maple’s sap is The Boss, though, because it contains 3-5 percent sugar, so it takes less sap to make syrup. I’ll bet a person could drink the sap from those other trees, though, and it would taste yummy…………
The Friendly Forager 